January 12th.—To-night there will be a great gathering of Kentuckians. Morgan gives them a dinner. The city of Richmond entertains John Morgan. He is at free quarters. The girls dined here. Conny Cary came back for more white feathers. Isabella had appropriated two sets and obstinately refused Constance Cary a single feather from her pile. She said, sternly: “I have never been on the stage before, and I have a presentiment when my father hears of this, I will never go again. I am to appear before the footlights as an English dowager duchess, and I mean to rustle in every feather, to wear all the lace and diamonds these two houses can compass “—(mine and Mrs. Preston’s). She was jolly but firm, and Constance departed without any additional plumage for her Lady Teazle.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Tuesday, 12th—It is cloudy but warm, and the ice is still coming down the river. Our duties here in camp are lightening up some. All is quiet and there is nothing of importance.
January 12 — The company policed camp to-day. Some few of these soldiers that would like to belong to the human family and race are actually too trifling to keep their back yards and kitchens clean. They act as if they never heard the golden precept that “Cleanliness is the next thing to godliness,” but practice and manifest every day that a hog loves to wallow in mud.
12th. Went to Hospitals with Dr. Smith to see sick. 2nd O. V. C. hospitals in wretched condition. Saw Joshua—sick—and fixed papers. Part of regt. came down.
[Diary] January 12.
As I rode to “The Oaks” I met John Driver, who is lame, and told him he might get into the buggy. As we rode along he asked me whether he was obliged by law to plant cotton on Mr. Fairfield’s land, and was forbidden by law to plant on the land he had purchased. All of “The Oaks” is now divided into lots of from five to ten acres, and our people have paid for them to the Tax Commissioners, receiving deeds. John tells me that Mr. Fairfield forbids the people’s planting cotton on their own land, upon pain of ejection from their houses, which are not on their own land, but on the schoolfarm. He says they must plant all the cotton for him and he will hire them; that they must raise on their own land only corn and potatoes enough for their own subsistence. I told him the law did not compel him to work for Mr. Fairfield, but that he had better do it for the sake of the wages, but on no account to delay planting cotton on his own land too, for it would be profitable. He said Mr. Fairfield told him he could never sell his cotton, for white men would not buy it of him, or he might be cheated if they did. He said he had asked Mr. Soule about this, and that Mr. Soule had promised that Mr. Philbrick would buy all the cotton he could raise for himself and had given him the same advice I did.
The people welcomed me with great appearance of gladness.
Diary And Memoranda, 1864
Jan. 12th. Major Cole whipped the guerilla Mosely in the Shenandoah valley. Have worked all day copying orders. Saw a palmetto leaf for the first time.
Huntsville, Tuesday, Jan. 12. Pleasant in the middle of the day, but freezing severely at night. Eight teams sent back to Flint River after the two pieces, also two loads of ammunition. Returned early. Busy most of the time completing “shebang”. Very small, but quite cozy for two soldiers. It is 6 ft. by 8 ft., 4½ ft. high on the side. Door is in front, 18 in. by 30 in., by side of which is chimney—18 in. stack. Bunk in back, 4 ft. wide. At the foot of it is the writing desk, opposite is hardtack box for cupboard, etc.
January 12, Tuesday. Only three of us at the Cabinet-meeting, and no special business matters were brought forward. I submitted to the President a dispatch from Commander Watson Smith at Pensacola relative to the disturbed condition of the people at Warrington. The port is blockaded, and the Rebels cut off from all shore supplies. In the mean time the Treasury agent has cut off the little communication that had been previously maintained by a few small dealers. The President requested me to consult with Chase, and any conclusion that we should come to he would affirm. Some little conversation followed as to the opening of additional ports. I remarked to the President that in my opinion it would be well to take some decisive and more general ground indicating progress towards peace. New Orleans being an open port, I asked, why might not the whole trans-Mississippi country above that place be thrown open to commerce? I told him my own convictions — and I had given the subject reflection — were favorable to the measure, and against the farther blockade of Red River and the country above that river on the west bank of the Mississippi. The President said the subject was worth considering and we must take it up.
by John Beauchamp Jones
JANUARY 12TH.—Hundreds were skating on the ice in the basin this morning; but it thawed all day, and now looks like rain.
Yesterday the President vetoed a bill appropriating a million dollars to clothe the Kentucky troops. The vote in the Senate, in an effort to pass it nevertheless, was 12 to 10, not two-thirds. The President is unyielding. If the new Conscription act before the House should become a law, the President will have nearly all power in his hands. The act suspending the writ of habeas corpus, before the Senate, if passed, will sufficiently complete the Dictatorship.
Gen. Jos. E. Johnston writes in opposition to the organization of more cavalry.
Mr. J. E. Murral, Mobile, Ala., writes Judge Campbell that a party there has authority from the United States authorities to trade anything but arms and ammunition for cotton.
Gen. Winder being directed to send Mr. Hirsh, a rich Jew, to the conscript camp, says he gave him a passport to leave the Confederate States some days ago, on the order of Judge Campbell, A. S. W. Col. Northrop says supplies of meat have failed.
January 12.—A portion of Colonel McCook’s cavalry attacked the Eighth and Eleventh Texas rebel regiments, at Mossy Creek, Tenn., and defeated them, killing fourteen and capturing forty-one of them.—Contributions were made in Georgia to equip a new command for the rebel General John H. Morgan. Among the contributors was Governor Joseph E. Brown, who gave five hundred dollars.—Richmond Whig.
